-Listen-
by Guardian of the Nakano
Summary: -In which nobody does- Rated T for language and violence. Review and enjoy! (New writing style, as well)


-Listen-

-In Which Nobody Does-

-Otherwise known as The Guardian-

-o-

He can't remember a thing.

His hair is pulled up into a ponytail, stitches like railroad tracks along his arm where he remembers a window used to be.

He feels and tastes blood, stirring in the pain that is swelling inside of his abdomen, inside of his arm, inside of his head.

He can barely breathe. He sees a face, and hands, and feet in front of his eyes.

He hears a crash.

The he sits up and yells.

"Shisui!"

-o-

He doesn't know how it happened.

But his father isn't home.

His life is a blur.

The walls are gaussian, his arms bandaged, the bracelet around his wrist denoting him mentally disoriented. He toys with this as he tries to remember.

The living room is locked away, his mother yet to have the blood stains removed from the pristine carpet, yet to trash her beloved piano that was bashed in, keys haven fallen out where a head must have been bashed in until it stopped struggling.

But his mother and little brother are out right now.

He is too mentally disoriented to be in public. He has panic attacks.

He screams for Shisui.

And Itachi pushes on the door until it doesn't work, and he gets upset because he knows his mother has the key.

The living room is a "trigger".

So Itachi does what he knows he should do, takes a few steps back, and slams his broken body into the door that barely budges.

And it's then he gets mad. And he slides on his Doc Marten. And he kicks in the door. And hits the ground on his knees, because everything comes rushing back.

And he grabs his head.

And he screams.

-o-

And Shisui walks through the halls, hands behind his back as is in regulation.

He looks awful in orange and he knows it.

One of the other inmates gets in his face and calls him pretty boy.

But he keeps walking. Because he has to get out.

He has to get back to Itachi before they release Fugaku.

Because if Fugaku gets out before him, Fugaku will kill Itachi and hide his body in the woods, like he said.

And he told everybody that Fugaku said this.

But nobody listened to Shisui.

Because he was a kid.

But if he was a kid, why was he charged as an adult at 16, with assault and battery?

Because nobody listens to a kid.

But he catches Fugaku's eye anyways, and gives him a determined look.

_Catch me if you can._

-o-

And Mikoto sits to the side silently as Itachi describes his nightmares.

Where shadows loom overhead.

Where he is forced to watch himself get beaten in the mirror.

Where he is a target of the world.

And he toys with his bracelet.

And he begins to convulse with urge, needing to wipe the look from the therapist's face.

And he instead stands and kicks the chair he was sitting in before.

And he screams, why won't anybody listen?

To either of us?!

And she thinks he has multiple personalities.

But Mikoto knows better.

And she tries to tell the therapist.

But she won't listen.

-o-

And Sasuke asks why his brother wakes up screaming in the night.

And Mikoto tells him to ignore it, because she is growing dispondant and dull, like a budgie with a vitamin deficiency.

And Sasuke is wondering why nobody is supposed to listen as Itachi screams.

-o-

Then Itachi is home alone.

And he is sitting on the sofa, head between his knees as he breathes.

And his chest is heaving.

And then the doorbell rings.

So he composes himself as best as he can, hides the red beneath his eyes, and opens the door.

And his head snaps backwards with the force of the blow.

Because his father is home.

And he laughs.

Because that kid couldn't beat him anyways.

And nobody listened as Shisui plead to the court, _please, he will kill him!_

Itachi really wished they did, because the last thing he saw was the ceiling fan blurring away as he was dragged by his hair to the back door.

-o-

He is woken with a gasp, blood spurting up from his arm and bubbling over into the grass like deja vu.

But it's different now, because the day is dying in a shade of violet so surreal it scares Itachi.

And the pain wakes him up again, as Fugaku drives the knife into his shoulder so roughly, he's sure it's dislocated.

But it's different now, because Itachi is dying with no Shisui there to shove Fugaku out of the way and grab Fugaku by his hair and slam Fugaku's head down into Mikoto's piano while Itachi lays unconscious and Sasuke hides in his room and Mikoto calls the police because Mikoto doesn't know what to do.

And then the knife gets lodged in his clavicle, so dangerously close to his throat it's terrifying, and it's making an awful squelching noise as Fugaku tries to wrench it out, only widening the wound until it gapes.

And Itachi doesn't bother screaming.

Because this day was coming.

Coming for years.

And he tried to tell them.

But they didn't listen.

And Itachi doesn't bother screaming.

Because nobody will listen now.

-o-

And frankly, Itachi is tired of listening.

Tired of listening to the damn sirens going off in the distance.

Tired of the screaming as somebody is forced into a car.

Tired of the squeaking of a gurney.

Tired of the calls of "hello" and "are you awake".

But there's something Itachi isn't tired of listening to.

Because it's so familiar.

The grasp of his hand as Shisui whispers to him that it's over, now.

And he wishes he could have heard as Shisui screamed his name, charging into that clearing and taking Fugaku down in a single hit, grabbing the knife and cutting off the fingers on his father's left hand, incapacitating him with his foot on Fugaku's throat until paramedics and the police who didn't listen in the first place arrived.

And the last thing he hears before the anesthetic takes over and knocks him out is Shisui screaming at the cops at the top of his lungs.

If you had listened the first time this wouldn't have happened!

And they can say _absolutely nothing_.

Because they should have.

And Shisui will tell it until their ears fall off.

-o-

And it's only years later that Itachi's shoulder stop hurting in the middle of the night.

And years later where Shisui is cleared of the charges and they are erased from his record.

And years later where Fugaku is sentenced to life.

And years later where Mikoto finally apologizes and says she should have listened to Itachi's screaming in the middle of the night, because maybe then it wouldn't have been so bad.

And Shisui, now Itachi's legal guardian, is so quick to retort his words are a rattlesnake, and Mikoto will be dead soon.

And Shisui's rage will never have any appeasement.

Because if they had listened...

None of it would have happened in the first place.

-o-


End file.
